Nobel Chemist on Nanotechnology

Dr. Roald Hoffmann has made numerous contributions in the
field of chemistry, most notably in geometrical structure and
reactivity of molecules. His contributions have earned him
numerous honors, including the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
He is currently a professor of chemistry at Cornell
University, focusing in the area of applied theoretical
chemistry. He is also on the technical advisory board of
Molecular Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc. (MMEI). Here he
gives his initial and expanded reactions to the goal of
nanotechnology:

The first reaction is "I'm glad you guys [that
includes women, of course] found a new name for
chemistry. Now you have the incentive to learn what you
didn't want to learn in college." Chemists have been
practicing nanotechnology, structure and reactivity and
properties, for two centuries, and for 50 years by
design.

What is exciting about modern nanotechnology is (a) the
marriage of chemical synthetic talent with a direction
provided by "device-driven" ingenuity coming
from engineering, and (b) a certain kind of courage
provided by those incentives, to make arrays of atoms and
molecules that ordinary, no, extraordinary chemists just
wouldn't have thought of trying. Now they're pushed to do
so.

And of course they will. They can do anything.
Nanotechnology is the way of ingeniously controlling the
building of small and large structures, with intricate
properties; it is the way of the future, a way of
precise, controlled building, with, incidentally,
environmental benignness built in by design.